1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system that provides information on power consumption amount of an electric vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The cruising range of an electric vehicle is as short as a fraction of that of the cruising range of a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. There has therefore been demanded that the accurate remaining cruisable distance and remaining battery charge amount to be notified to a driver. Based on the notified remaining cruisable distance and remaining battery charge amount, the driver figures out whether the electric vehicle can travel from the present location to the destination.
The conventional gasoline-powered vehicle consumes fuel even while it is running on a downhill since the engine of the vehicle is working. In contrast, the electric vehicle is designed such that the battery mounted thereon is charged due to regeneration with braking, thereby extending the remaining cruising range of the vehicle. Thus, when the electric vehicle travels from the present location to the destination, it needs to calculate, in addition to the amount of power consumed by the battery, the amount of power charged by regeneration. Consequently, the necessity to take altitude and gradient data into consideration becomes greater than in conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.
JP-2006-115623-A discloses, for example, a technique in which histories of battery consumption are managed every link and vehicle type and such histories are downloaded from a center for accurate calculation of the cruisable distance. In addition, JP-9-119839-A discloses a technique in which, based on remaining amount of battery and data about items such as a road gradient based on information on the altitude, the presence or absence of corners, an urban area or a non-urban area, the cruisable range is to be displayed. Further in case it is determined that the vehicle cannot reach the nearest charging station judging from what is displayed, current consumption due to the air-conditioning and audio is suppressed.